Virgin Racing hits hydraulic problems

[John S]

So Virgin are finding out just how tough the baptism of fire can be in F1, lets hope they can avoid any more issues this week.

Virgin Racing team started it's second full test with the VR-01 at Jerez, after an eventual successful conclusion to its testing debut here last week, the team experienced more of the rough than the smooth today when an elusive hydraulics problem proved hard to pin down.

After dodging the wet running that is starting to dominate pre-season testing, Virgin Racing was forced to spend the afternoon in diagnostic mode conducting a series of out-laps to try to flush out the root cause through the hydraulic system. As a result, the team completed just 10 laps of the 4.5km circuit and were unable to set a representative lap time.

Virgin Racing's technical directory Nick Wirth commented: "We have experienced a sequence of hydraulic problems which were tricky to diagnose on a new car. This caused us to suffer long and frustrating periods confined to the garage and when we did venture out on track it was purely to conduct a series of exploratory out-laps to try to understand if we had cured the problem. We eventually discovered the real issue, albeit rather late in the day.

"Nonetheless, having fully identified the problem, we can fix it tonight and look forward to what we hope will be a more constructive day of running for Timo (Glock) and the team tomorrow."

gpupdate.net, today.

[Jericoke]

Don't tell me they design the hydraulics in the computer too...

[Alianora La Canta]

I think they did...

[FW14B]

I think they are slowly getting their problems sorted.  I really do not want to see any of the new teams that make it to the grid embarrassing themselves.

[Jericoke]

I think they are slowly getting their problems sorted.  I really do not want to see any of the new teams that make it to the grid embarrassing themselves.

Certainly USGP and Campos can expect to have the same teething problems as Virgin and Lotus are having.  They're not leaving any time to fix them.

Does anyone think it would be unreasonable for the FIA to have a mandatory test session, and anyone who can't complete it, can't compete?  It would ensure that teams have a supply of spare parts, and that they've sorted out their suppliers.  It would stop embarassing cars from showing up at the first race, and it would set a hard and fast deadline for teams to have their cars ready. 

[judy]

I think it is a good idea to have mandatory test session by setting a minimum number of days (perhaps somewhere around 3 - 5 days minimum would be reasonable). This would allow the teams to overcome and rectify some teething problems during the test session.

In the past, there were cases involving some teams skipping all the pre-season testing sessions, giving the excuse of financial constrainst which is totally unacceptable. If I am not mistaken, Spyker did that about 3 years ago.
 

[Dare]

With these new team problems it looks
like the GG dnf's are going to increase
this year

[Jericoke]

With these new team problems it looks
like the GG dnf's are going to increase
this year

We might need an over/under on the number of cars that even make the grid...

[FW14B]

Worried by the number of failures Williams have had so far, that is going to add to the GG DNF column!!

[Alianora La Canta]

In the past, there were cases involving some teams skipping all the pre-season testing sessions, giving the excuse of financial constrainst which is totally unacceptable. If I am not mistaken, Spyker did that about 3 years ago. {judy - 4 posts ago}

Spyker did do three weeks of pre-season testing (totalling 6557 km of mileage, which was the least of any team), though in that era the Silverstone team routinely missed the pre-Christmas testing. Force India originally planned to miss all the pre-season testing last year (due to time rather than money) but some rapid work from the factory staff bought it three weeks of testing.

I wonder if you were thinking of Super Aguri, judy - they missed all the 2008 pre-season testing for lack of money... ...and then disappeared between the fourth and fifth races of the season.

[judy]

Alianora, I think you are right! It is Super Aguri, not Spyker who missed all the pre-season testing.

[cosworth151]

For some reason, this reminds me of an old story from Sports Endurance racing. A German manufacturer, who prided itself on its engines, said that they cut a test session short because of an electrical problem. When a reporter asked their British driver, he said, "Absolutely an electrical problem! When the con rod came out through the side of the engine, it knocked the alternator off."